


Angelbeast

by RyMagnatar



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, Sadstuck, Sorta alternate AU canon line thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-17
Updated: 2012-05-17
Packaged: 2017-11-05 12:35:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/406445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyMagnatar/pseuds/RyMagnatar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan Ampora has killed all of the angels on his planet of LOWAA. They, however, are a game construct and their extermination creates another game construct referred to as the Angelbeast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Angelbeast

** -cascadingSeraph [CS] began tormenting caligulasAquarium [CA]- **  
CS: How could you do it.  
CA: uh wwho are you  
CS: How could you.  
CA: i dont knoww wwho you are  
CA: howw do you havve this handle anywway  
CA: are you one of the humans  
CS: How could.  
CS: How.  
CA: howw could i do wwhat  
CS: You will remember.  
CS: You will.  
CS: You.  
CA: is that like some wweird quirk wwhere you havve to repeat yourself or somefin because its pretty fuckin creepy  
CA: and you still havvent told me wwho you are  
CA: so answwer me you fuckin creep  
CS: This is not your end.  
CA: wwhat  
CS: Not yet.  
** -cascadingSeraph [CS] ceased tormenting caligulasAquarium [CA] temporarily- **

** -caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling twinArmageddons [TA]- **  
CA: sol somefin is wwrong wwith my trollian  
CA: this fuckin person started botherin me and it didn’t say trollin it said tormentin  
TA: that actually 2ound2 liike 2omethiing that 2hould apply two when you 2tart trolliing me  
CA: sol this is fuckin searious  
CA: and ivve nevver seen their handle either  
CA: i mean wwho uses cascadingSeraph as a name thats a fuckin stupid name  
TA: ii ju2t checked the lii2ted name2 and that one diidnt come up ed  
TA: quiit makiing 2hiit up just two talk two me  
CA: can you just come ovver here and check it out or somefin  
TA: ah that2 what you wanted  
TA: iim bu2y ed  
TA: ff and ii are doiing que2t2 together so you need two deal wiith your iimagiinary problem on your own  
CA: dont be such a fuckin asshole sol  
CA: is it reely such an issue for you to fuckin come ovver to my land and check out my husktop  
CA: i figured this computer shit wwas like your most fuckin favvorite thing to do in the wwhole fuckin wworld  
TA: your world ii2 covered iin angel2 who try two kiill everyone who 2how2 up  
TA: 2o youll have to forgiive me when ii deciide ii dont want two put myself iin needle22 danger  
TA: just to come help you wiith your nonexii2tent computer problem2  
CA: they fuckin are existent!  
TA: iif you dont leave me alone ed ii wiill blow up your computer  
TA: and then you wont have any computer problem2 ever agaiin  
CA: that is not makin my problem any better sol  
CA: that wwould just make this fuckin wworse  
TA: you know what ii thiink you de2erve a liittle wor2e riight now  
CA: dont you fuckin

** -caligulasAquarium’s computer exploded!- **  
TA: 2olved iit  
TA: youre welcome ed  
** -twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling caligulasAquarium [CA]- **

The smoking, sparking shell of your husktop is the only source of light you have out. With shaking fingers you try to search through your sylladex by the light of the sparks and just as they finally fizzle out of life you manage to yank out a lantern. In the darkness you curse and fumble to light it and after a few hopeless clicks a flame finally bursts into existence.

You let out a soft sigh, shaking slightly as you hold the light carefully in your hands. The room is blue-green in the glow and it looks just the same as when you set it up. There’s your pile and your computer and some wrappers for food. Ever since the darkness began to settle, you’ve been uneasily resting, trying to figure out your next move.

That was when you received that strange, fleeting conversation. You would have written it off as nothing but a prank but the darkness put you on edge. There was no light anywhere. The once white skies were black as pitch and the beautiful buildings you had looked at were now ominous and full of darker shadows in the darkness.

The worst part about it all was the fact that you felt like someone was watching you.

Somehow, in the absolute darkness that ate at light and your sanity, something was watching you.

Without your computer you can’t reach out for help without leaving your land.

And you have no idea where or how you were supposed to do that.

* * *

Feferi and you are taking a moment to rest when you open your husktop for a little chat. You think first you’ll message Karkat when instead you decide, just for a moment, to check that handle that Eridan gave you. Why not? You’d checked it once already, and you just couldn’t let it pass without checking again.

This time, when you go looking for it, you find it.

Strange.

** -twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling cascadingSeraph [CS]- **  
TA: and here ii thought ed wa2 a fuckiing liiar  
CS: The murderer spoke of us to you.  
TA: who ed?  
TA: he2 a murderer?  
TA: holy fuck who diid he kiill  
CS: The murderer exterminated our entire species.  
CS: We have only allowed this conversation between you  and us to fulfill our requirements to show gratitude.  
CS: We express gratitude to you at this point in time because it is necessary to our purpose.  
TA: youre welcome ii gue22  
TA: what ii2 your purpo2e?  
CS:We shall exterminate the murderer.  
TA: waiit what  
TA: youre goiing to kiill ed?  
TA: ii thiink we 2tiill need hiim for the game  
CS: You will make do without him.  
CS: However.  
CS: If you do not that is not our problem.  
TA: ye2 iit ii2 my problem iif we 2tiill need hiim  
CS: Our Purpose is clear.  
CS: Blood for Blood.  
CS: Do not get in our way Mage.  
CS: The murderous prince shall perish.  
** -cascadingSeraph [CS] ceased warning twinArmageddons [TA] permanently- **

You stare for a moment at that ending line.

Warning? Permanently? The alterations to the line- sure it’s possible but it was never something you had done and certainly Eridan didn’t have the skill to do so either.

You run a hand through your hair and rub at the back of your neck because your headache is coming back. You had quests to finish with Feferi. You didn’t have time for Eridan’s attention grabbing shenanigans.

Feferi is standing up now and stretching. You frown slightly and then ask, “Ff? Has Eridan ever made a second chum handle to pester you with before?”

“What? Why no he hasn’t! That would be glubbing silly for him to do!” she giggles, running her thin little fingers through her long hair. “Besides it would be so easy for me to figure out it was him! No matter how he tries he always ends up sounding the same!”

Her big eyes blink at you from under her goggles and you have to look down at your computer.

Okay, so maybe exploding his computer wasn’t the smartest thing you had ever done. Even looking over the log you saw he was worried, coming to you with actual concerns. You had just been in a bad mood. There was all this yelling going on in your head, worse than normal, and well, making him unable to contact you again to prevent you from having to think about what he had to say made you feel better.

It’s only now that you realize that you isolated him on a planet with a revenging angel.

As you close your husktop, fingers curling around the edges briefly, you think that there is always the chance that he just jumped off to another planet after killing all the angels on his.

But this is Eridan you’re thinking about. Mister I won’t fucking give up even if it’s in my best interests. Mister way to fucking hopeful for his own good. Mister why the fuck doesn’t he ever just do what he’s supposed to do and make everyone else’s lives easier? Mister stranded on a planet with no way to contact anyone because the only person he did contact blew up his computer and now he’s going to get murdered. Mister hopeful reaching out for assistance only to have it shoved back in his face by an angry dumbfuck with too much skill with computers.

Mister doomed prince of hope.

Fuck. You are going to go save his sorry ass aren’t you?

You close your eyes and rub them with your fingertips. Yes. Yes you are.

* * *

When you see the light in the horizon, reflecting off the buildings, you are absolutely sure you are hallucinating. You sit with your back against the wall under what you are pretty sure is a window clutching your gun across your chest. The darkness ate the lantern too. The darkness eats everything.

Everything but sound.

You can hear it, whatever it is, out there.

It moves through the sky with wings that creak like bones trapped in heavy feathers, swooping beats that echo through the blackness. You’ve heard it on the ground, scales hissing as it slides scales over the stones. It has claws, you can hear them, almost feel them, when it drags them along the walls of the buildings around you.

The worst is when it speaks.

The voice echoes, haunting, like a thousand voices all at once. It speaks like it has a mouthful of fangs twisted up into a smile. You press your back against the stone and you want to scream every time you hear it but you don’t oh no you don’t.

You don’t dare make a sound.

It has been silent for some time and now there are lights.

This is it. You are seeing lights and it’s a trap. The moment you lift your head and look out that window, it will pluck you out and swallow you whole.

Or maybe in pieces. It hasn’t quite made up its mind with its threats.

You draw your knees up tighter on your chest and squeeze your eyes shut. If you hold still for as long as you can, maybe it will go away.

What are you kidding? It will go away. All glimmers of light vanish eventually.

You don’t know how long you sit like that, but when you open your eyes the lights are only brighter.

And now there is a voice.

“Ed?”

You know that voice, from somewhere in the back of your mind you remember. Somewhere before the dark and the monster and the constant fear you had no idea how to escape, you remember.

“Eridan! Where the fuck are you?”

Raspy, unused to shouting that loud but you know that voice. The lights, red and blue and flashing, are brighter coming in through the window.

“The fuck is even wrong with this place. It makes no sense that this place is pitch black.”

That’s him. You are so crazy that now you are having auditory hallucinations. Your legs protest as you push yourself up along the wall. Still holding your rifle tightly in hand, you reach for the glass of the window. It’s cool against your fingers and it takes you only a moment to find the latch. With a too loud click it pops open and you shove open the tall glass window.  “Sol?”

There is the blue and red. It surrounds a lanky form that floats in the sky. Your throat is almost too tight to speak as you call out louder, “Sollux, over here!”

The light glows brighter and you lift a hand up to shield your eyes. “Ed? What the fuck is going on?”

When you can see him again, he’s right in front of you, floating in the air and lit with the red and blue of his own psionics. You’re grinning. Your face hurts so much with your smiling as you reach out to him with one hand, “All the lights went out.”

“Thanks for letting me know, dipshit.” His foot reaches the ledge of the window and you back away, “I thought maybe this place was so horrible looking that it induced instant blindness.” He steps inside and you hurry to shut the window behind him.

“Stop using your psionics, Sol, the thing will find us faster.” When he takes a moment too long you grab him by the shoulder and shake him. “Stop using them!”

His sneering, scowling face is the last thing that you see before he complies. You breathe easier once the darkness surrounds you again. “Okay, it is time for you to explain what is going on. What or who is that seraph thing and why is this place this dark and why is it going to kill you?”

You laugh. You think it might be a crazed man’s laughter but at this point you can’t stop feeling crazy all the time. “You believe it exists now? I thought you said it was imaginary!”

“I talked to it too. It told me it was going to kill you and thanked me for exploding your computer. Now stop laughing like that you sound fucking crazy.” His hand goes on top of yours on his shoulder and he squeezes. He lifts you hand but you resist. You press closer to him. He’s warmer than you could ever hope to be, and warmer than you have felt in so long.

“I think I am crazy,” you whisper softly, “I don’t know how long I’ve been in the dark like this, Sol. How long I’ve listened to it coming after me.” You laugh again.

His fingers tighten around yours, bony and thin and so fragile compared to your own. “It’s only been like a day or two since you contacted me.”

“The darkness started before that,” you whisper. He’s warm. You want that warmth. You need it. You step closer to him, still talking, “The more of the angels that died the darker everything became. And then they were all dead, every single fuckin’ one of them and then, haha, everything went dark.” You can feel his heat so close to you now. “After the darkness there came the monster.”

“Right,” he sounds so uneasy. “So let’s get the fuck out of here before it can do anything to us.” He takes a step back and then it happens.

The twisted echo of voices rises loud and high. It begins as a low moaning that sounds like a thousand voices writhing in agony- and then it begins to rise to a wail. Sollux’s hand vanishes off of yours and you feel him begin to shake. “What is that? What the fuck is that!?”

“That’s the angel,” you whisper, all fear and no laughter now, “That’s the angel coming to kill me.” The wail is now a shriek, making your ears ring and your body rigid with fear. Eventually it faded, leaving nothing but an echo. You can’t breathe. You can’t move.

One of his hands pats up your arm and then lightly touches your face. You stand frozenly as his warm fingertips dance across your cheek. Then it vanishes.

In the next second a slap smack across one cheek and then a quick backhand on the other break through the cold fear filling your bones. His hand slides lightly down your neck and grabs the collar of your cape. “We’re going to leave. I know where the portal is out of here. We need to get up onto high ground.”

“Only the buildings are any tall around here.” You murmur. You lean your jaw against his hand until he yanks it away. His shoulder is still warm beneath your fingers. “You need the tallest castle? We are in it.”

“Right. Then let’s head up.”

You slide your hand quickly down his arm and grip his wrist. You’d hold his sleeve but it was too short and you didn’t dare presume you could hold his hand. Pulling him along, you whisper, “I remember most of the lay out here. The steps are right around the corner.”

And there they are. You bump your foot over one of them and begin to walk up them. He follows you silently. You are half a dozen steps up when you stop suddenly. There is the faint sound of claws on stone, claws digging through stone, down the hallway. A pounding begins against the stone doors at the end of the hall behind you.  A curse squeezes itself out of your suddenly too tight throat and you yank on Sollux’s arm to pull him faster up the steps.

He follows you with a soft litany of curses tumbling from his lisping lips. You reach the top of the steps before you know it and tumble forward when you expect more steps, pulling Sollux down after you. “Fuck this,” he snarls and suddenly the dark hall is lit in blue and red that circles his head like a strange halo of light. He gets to his feet and pulls on your arm until you stand as well. Your hands shake on your rifle and your ears are filled with the pounding of flesh against stone.

The stone begins to crack and in the blackness you hear pieces of it falling to the floor. “C’mon, let’s get going!” Sollux hisses out, except even that sound is muffled by the crunching, cracking crashing sounds.

You stumble behind him as he leads you down the hall again, finding more stairs. Just as your feet reach the steps, the door fully crumbles in one last cascade and the thousand voices croon into the darkness.

**_Little Prince, we have decided how you shall perish._ **

“No,” you are unaware that you speak, “No I don’t want to die.”

“You aren’t going to die, you fucking idiot!” Sollux is shouting, shaking you, “Come on! Faster!”

You follow him, eyes trying to look at the ground but dazzled by the red and blue so close to your face. You go up steps upon steps and the two of you don’t fall again until you reach the very top. The sound of wings beating and scales slithering upon stone inconsistently brings tremors to your limbs and you fall at the last few steps, letting go of your grip on Sollux and catching yourself on your elbows and forearms. You bow your head against the stone for a moment and let out a painful sob. You don’t want to die. You don’t want to die! Youdon’twanttodie!

* * *

The question of how fucking long he had spent in the darkness to actually get to the point of crying and begging in front of you is one that you don’t have time to think about right now.

Not when you can hear an echo of his voice in the back of your head.

“I don’t want to die!” sobs the form at your feet. _You’re not hurt right?_ The same voice in your head.

“Please, I don’t want to die!” he blubbers before you. _I’m sorry that it’s ending like this,_ his words in your head.

“Please, please, don’t let me die,” his voice is heavy with his fear, his agony. _This isn’t how I thought I would die. But at least-_

“SHUT UP.” You shout, grabbing him by the shoulders of his stupid cape and shake him. “SHUT UP AND FOLLOW ME. You aren’t dead yet!”

He gets to his feet and you’re dragging him forward now. The wall lights up before you and then there is a door. Its unlocked, thank God, and you push it open with your shoulder. There is blackness all around you outside as well, but at least with your psionics you can sort of see the edge. Eridan keeps close to your side as you bot exit onto the roof. He shuts the door and as soon as you hear the wood crunch into place against the stone, you hear a crashing of glass below.

You search the horizon with your gaze but you can’t see that far into the darkness. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“What is it?” You turn and there is Eridan’s face, close to yours, his eyes wide and wiled in the glow of your psionics.

“I can’t see the portal from this angle. I think it is in that direction,” you point off to your left, “But I can’t be sure. I don’t have nearly enough power to light up this much.”

“Let me.” And suddenly he is standing in front of you, gun up and in his hands and he’s firing. A white beam of light cuts through the sky and you let out a relieved breath because you were right. The blue light of the portal reflects off the white beam and after a while of straight firing, Eridan stops.  He turns, smiling slightly. His teeth look strange in the light too.

Before you can say anything, though, he’s grabbing your shoulders and pulling you closer. “Ed! The fuck!” That’s when you hear it, feel it, smell it. Something is stirring the air behind you, scales coil in and around themselves and there is the smell of rotten meat and putrid waters. Then you are pressed to Eridan’s side and the white light goes burning through the sky again.

The creature screams, thousands of voices creating a cacophony of agony. It runs through you like a knife to your brainstem, and for a moment your psionics flicker out of existence. You are both drenched in pure white light and the screaming of the beast. When the light fades, Eridan is breathing heavily. “Okay, it fell. Let’s get out of here, Sol.” A pause. “Sol?”

Your head is swimming with voices inside and outside and you can’t even fucking _think_. He drags you for a while, and after a moment or two you can start stumbling after him. There are a few steps and then the two of you are on some sort of platform under an awning. “Sol, just relax here for a second,” he pushes you down to sit on some flat surface raised up on the platform. “We have a second before it comes back.”

“Before it…But you hit it straight on didn’t you?”

“It regenerates.” Any brief thought that you could survive it attacking you, maybe kill it with your combined effort, is snuffed out completely as he adds, “Pretty damn quickly too so you need to gather yourself together and then get us the fuck out of here.”

“Right, okay.” You close your eyes and take a deep breath. You are about to get back onto your feet when there is a crunching sound above you.

“Fuck.” He hisses and you flicker on your psionics as you look up. The beast has two enormous mouths, full of black teeth and a black tongue that glisten in the blue-red light. Black wings frame around its head. Whatever awning is overhead, it has a huge square skylight in it and that just makes you feel all the less defended.  You see no glossy reflection of eyes anywhere on its head.

Eridan stands beside you, rifle raised up, “Sol, plug your ears.”

The blinding light follows. So does the screaming. You cover your ears but it really does nothing.

Even as the light burns through the creature’s shoulder, across its chest and through its wing, it comes falling down towards the two of you. It has hands and claws out stretched. You try to focus your psionics to _do_ something but the creature is screaming with a thousand voices and your vision is going blurry. Your psionics fail you, again, and you hear a whisper, cold as the deep ocean, voice slither into your thoughts, _You’re okay, right Sol?_

The black creature falls down. The light of the gun fades and the three of you are thrown into darkness once more. You fall back hard against the stone as Eridan falls down on top of you. You smell death and decay and the salt of the ocean and _blood_ and your body shivers as that creature speaks.

_**Blood for Blood** _

You feel the digging of the butt of the rifle against your ribs and then Eridan growls out, “Eat my ammo, angelbeast, and die!” The light comes burning back into existence and the screaming only becomes louder.

You black out.

But only for a short time.

When you awake, you are in darkness again. Eridan is still on top of you. He’s still breathing too. You can feel it against your chest. “Ed? Eridan?”

He groans and coughs. It sounds wet and awful. You push him off of yourself and he rolls over with a sickening thump. You feel cold, and gross. With your pisonics lighting the way, you reach down and lift up your hand. Your stomach does flips as you realize that the liquid on your hand is- is-

“Sol?” His voice is weak and faint. “You’re not hurt, right?”

“What? No! I’m fine. Are you-“

“I’m sorry.” He cuts you off in that stupid way he sometimes does. “that it’s ending like this.”

“Don’t be fucking stupid. You killed the angelbeast and now we can get you to someone who can heal you. I mean maybe Ff can-“

His hand moves weakly against your shoulder and then bounces over to your jaw. Finding it, he lightly pats your cheek. You realize his eyes are closed, that he can’t see you. “This isn’t how I thought I would die. But at least you’re safe. So don’t-“ He coughs again, wet and loud and the hand drops from your face. That same dark purple liquid spills from his lips and he doesn’t speak again.

“Ed.”

You shift him onto his back with your psionics.

“Ampora.”

He’s cold under your fingers. His chest doesn’t move. His blood pusher is still.

“Eridan.”

You brighten the intensity of your psionics. He is drenched in blood. His body is ripped open. How did he even manage to stay awake long enough to wait for you to wake up?

“Eridan Ampora, wake the fuck up.”

You shake him _and his head nearly rolls off his shoulders._

How the _fuck_ did he _talk_?

So you sit there next to his body for a while. Silent. Disbelieving. You’re going to have to tell Karkat. You’re going to have to tell Feferi. Will they believe you? Will you have to bring them here?

Should you bring proof?

At about this time you realize that everything is getting lighter around you. You look around and you see the horizon lighting up. You see the portal in the distance.

The platform that you are on is covered in violet and black blood. You hesitate, looking at Eridan’s body, and then slide the scarf from around his neck. That should be proof enough. Right?

Proof that you got him killed and when you should have fought with him you couldn’t even focus enough to use enough energy to light the way. You captcha it quickly and stand on shaking legs. With your psionics you rise from the tall tower of the castle and you fly. You soar towards the portal with blood on your clothes and utterly no hope. Just before you pass through the portal, you look over your shoulder. The blackness is receding now, being pulled from the sky like a dark blanket.

Light is being given back to a world and in your opinion; it doesn’t even matter in the least.

Steeling yourself for the confrontations you will have to have, you fly through the portal.

* * *

**Eridan== > Arise**


End file.
